Post by Okwes on Nov 27, 2006 11:30:07 GMT -5
Ramblings: A story behind story of Abenaki 'Song'
Published: Thursday, November 9, 2006
By Sally Pollak
Free Press Staff Writer
Book captures American Indian view of 1759 siege
The story was passed down through the Obomsawim family, generation to generation, but it never made its way to Jeanne Brink, a family member who lives in Barre. The story is about an attack on an Abenaki village one night during a village dance -- and how one villager, a girl named Maliazonis, was warned of the attack.
"Maliazonis" means Mary Jean in Abenaki. It is one of the special links connecting Brink to her ancestors in Odanak, the village where the raid took place.
The story that was part of one family's oral tradition is now the subject of a children's book, "Malian's Song." It puts in writing the Abenaki version of a siege in the fall of 1759, an attack on the St. Francis Abenaki in their village north of Montreal. The attack is known as Rogers' Raid, and is most often learned about from the British point of view.
In "Malian's Song," by Marge Bruchac, the events of Oct. 4, 1759, are recounted by a girl called Malian. (She would tell the story to her granddaughter, who in turn passed it on to her niece, Elvine Obomsawim. Elvine, a basket-maker, was Brink's maternal grandmother.)
The night of the village dance, Malian rested by the window near her bed. She could hear the music from the celebration; she was singing when she fell asleep. Malian awoke as her father, heeding the warning of danger, burst into her room to rescue his daughter. He picked her up, blankets and all, and ran to safety.
"Then we left the house, heading north," Bruchac writes. "I never knew my father to move so fast."
Malian and others escaped, while their village burned. She never saw her father again. It is believed that 32 Abenaki were killed that night -- far fewer than the hundreds reported dead in the British account.
Brink, who turns 62 on Sunday, knew her grandmother as a basket maker, a craft that she, too, practices. Until she was a college student in her 40s, Brink was unaware that Elvine Obomsawim was also a keeper of Abenaki history. Researching a project in a American Indian literature course, Brink read articles about her grandmother by anthropologist Gordon Day. Obomsawim had told the Odanak stories in her native language (which Obomsawim pronounced a-BAN-a-key). They were translated by the scholar; Brink read them in translation.
"It just made me look at my grandmother in a different light," Brink said. "She was the keeper of an important part of Abenaki history."
Brink surmises that her grandmother didn't pass the story on to her children for the same reason she didn't teach them basket-making or the Abenaki language. "She wanted them to be acculturated and blend in with dominant society," Brink said. "It didn't surprise me she hadn't told them that story."
Brink remembers that when she learned the story, through Day's scholarship, she couldn't sleep. One night, awake at 2 or 3 in the morning, she turned on the television.
"Lo and behold!" Brink said. "What was on the TV? 'Northwest Passage.'" It's the Spencer Tracy movie about the attack.
"Here was this scene of them raiding the village of Odanak," she said. "It was eerie: Watching a movie where you know that your great-great-great grandfather was killed." She also noted fallacies in the depiction of Abenaki life. She is hopeful that "Malian's Song" will help present a truer picture of events -- or at least offer an alternate interpretation.
"Maybe it will help children to realize that there are two sides to a story," Brink said. "Or two sides to a battle or disagreement. You can't always believe what you've been told."
Contact Sally Pollak at spollak@ bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
Published: Thursday, November 9, 2006
By Sally Pollak
Free Press Staff Writer
Book captures American Indian view of 1759 siege
The story was passed down through the Obomsawim family, generation to generation, but it never made its way to Jeanne Brink, a family member who lives in Barre. The story is about an attack on an Abenaki village one night during a village dance -- and how one villager, a girl named Maliazonis, was warned of the attack.
"Maliazonis" means Mary Jean in Abenaki. It is one of the special links connecting Brink to her ancestors in Odanak, the village where the raid took place.
The story that was part of one family's oral tradition is now the subject of a children's book, "Malian's Song." It puts in writing the Abenaki version of a siege in the fall of 1759, an attack on the St. Francis Abenaki in their village north of Montreal. The attack is known as Rogers' Raid, and is most often learned about from the British point of view.
In "Malian's Song," by Marge Bruchac, the events of Oct. 4, 1759, are recounted by a girl called Malian. (She would tell the story to her granddaughter, who in turn passed it on to her niece, Elvine Obomsawim. Elvine, a basket-maker, was Brink's maternal grandmother.)
The night of the village dance, Malian rested by the window near her bed. She could hear the music from the celebration; she was singing when she fell asleep. Malian awoke as her father, heeding the warning of danger, burst into her room to rescue his daughter. He picked her up, blankets and all, and ran to safety.
"Then we left the house, heading north," Bruchac writes. "I never knew my father to move so fast."
Malian and others escaped, while their village burned. She never saw her father again. It is believed that 32 Abenaki were killed that night -- far fewer than the hundreds reported dead in the British account.
Brink, who turns 62 on Sunday, knew her grandmother as a basket maker, a craft that she, too, practices. Until she was a college student in her 40s, Brink was unaware that Elvine Obomsawim was also a keeper of Abenaki history. Researching a project in a American Indian literature course, Brink read articles about her grandmother by anthropologist Gordon Day. Obomsawim had told the Odanak stories in her native language (which Obomsawim pronounced a-BAN-a-key). They were translated by the scholar; Brink read them in translation.
"It just made me look at my grandmother in a different light," Brink said. "She was the keeper of an important part of Abenaki history."
Brink surmises that her grandmother didn't pass the story on to her children for the same reason she didn't teach them basket-making or the Abenaki language. "She wanted them to be acculturated and blend in with dominant society," Brink said. "It didn't surprise me she hadn't told them that story."
Brink remembers that when she learned the story, through Day's scholarship, she couldn't sleep. One night, awake at 2 or 3 in the morning, she turned on the television.
"Lo and behold!" Brink said. "What was on the TV? 'Northwest Passage.'" It's the Spencer Tracy movie about the attack.
"Here was this scene of them raiding the village of Odanak," she said. "It was eerie: Watching a movie where you know that your great-great-great grandfather was killed." She also noted fallacies in the depiction of Abenaki life. She is hopeful that "Malian's Song" will help present a truer picture of events -- or at least offer an alternate interpretation.
"Maybe it will help children to realize that there are two sides to a story," Brink said. "Or two sides to a battle or disagreement. You can't always believe what you've been told."
Contact Sally Pollak at spollak@ bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com